7 months

The highlight of this month was a really sweet stay-cation the first week of Daddy's summer.

You had your first picnic in the backyard and your first hike at Victory Lake at Berry. You love being outside. You used to grunt when the wind would blow- we used to joke that the wind was offending you :) But just this month you've started loving being outside. One time when your older brothers were playing outside I stuck my head out while I was holding you to tell them something and then came back in and you started crying, I think because you thought you were going to get to go outside. You actually eat better outside than at the table.

You enjoyed playing with the big boys over the break too (you even got to play Paw Patrol with your own pup Rocky). You love watching your brothers and they love playing with you and making you laugh. Luke loves to pour out all of your toys in your lap when you're in the bouncy and see which toy you choose.

We're doing church remotely from our bedroom because of corona, so you get to come to "big church" with us if you're up from your nap, which has been sweet.

We had been in a challenging season with your sleep/eat routine but over the course of the stay-cation we kind of had a breakthrough and found something that seems to be working really well.

We stretched you to a four hour feeding routine during the day (7-11-3-6:30-10:00 and then one in the middle of the night) a few weeks before the end of the semester because you were just eating 2-3 minutes on the three hour routine, and then the week of our stay-cation we finally found a sleep routine that seems to be working- hooray! You wake up around 7, nap around 9 for about an hour and then again around 1 for 1.5-2 hours, and then go down for a catnap around 4:30 (you usually kick around until around 5 and then sleep until 5:30). Finding a routine that works is a sweet answer to prayer. You still wake up in the six o'clock hour sometimes, but sweet Daddy rocks you until it's time to eat.

We switched to the woombie swaddle with both arms in after one day when you all of a sudden started getting both arms out of the miracle swaddle. If you get your arms out, you can't get yourself to sleep and just lie there playing. We had tried the miracle swaddle with one arm out but you could only ever sleep 45 minutes with an arm out. We just tried the woombie at night (we'd been doing the woombie for naps and miracle swaddle at night), and you did amazing. It didn't even faze you!

You slept through the night two nights ago for the first time! I wonder if it's just a one time thing?

You are sitting by yourself for a few seconds now and you can roll your hips over if I help you halfway.

Your favorite foods are green beans, carrots, oatmeal, peas, spinach/zucchini/peas, and watermelon. You're not a huge fan of sweet potatoes, chicken (except for your hands that we like to call chicken fingers), or peanut butter.

You still love to bounce in your bouncy seat. We got the exesaucer out thinking you'd love the bounce but so far it's been a little overwhelming. Maybe it'll grow on you.

You LOVE tags. If you're about to lose it after your bath, I just distract you with the tag on your towel and you're set. You love the tag on your bib too. And you still like to pull the pee-pee cloth off during diaper changes (I try to distract you with other fun things like toys or a cloth bib with a TAG).

You've grown up so much in the last month. Your sweet personality is really coming out. You've become really smiley and still give the sweetest cuddles.